News Archive 2017

Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe, "With a barrage of insults and threats, President Trump has begun the process of turning Mexico against us. This could bring the United States something it has never had: an unfriendly country on our border. "

Timothy Edgar in Lawfare Blog, "Whether we approve of the motive or not, it is an abuse of surveillance for national security officials to leverage legitimate foreign intelligence collection to reveal public information in order to damage individuals they do not believe should serve."

Michael Kennedy in RI Future, "Of course some believe the presidential election was rigged, but many more people believe that Trump’s legitimacy suffers because his excesses have not been tamed by the awesomeness of the presidential office itself."

In response to the US correspondent of one of Argentina's leading newspapers, Kennedy acknowledged the difficulty of projecting Trump's likely future, but he said that one must "prepare for the worst." Spanish text.

A paper co-authored by Watson economist Justine Hastings adds to growing evidence that for every additional dollar in food stamp benefits recipients get, nearly all of it goes into buying additional food.

Narges Bajoghli in Al-Monitor, "American universities have been quick to respond. Presidents from the United States’ leading colleges and universities have individually and jointly sent letters to Trump, including a widely publicized letter from 47 university presidents stressing that the executive order threatens American higher education."

Applying for food stamps usually indicates that a household is struggling financially, but a new Brown study co-authored by Justine Hastings, professor of economics, reveals that families spend more for the same amount of food once they are using taxpayer funded benefits.